A spotter captured the moment when two herons were sucked into a Thomson Fly Boeing 757-200 moments after lift-off from Manchester airport at 9.15 on Sunday morning.
The engine, a Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4, was shut down and the pilot made a successful emergency landing on one engine.
The aircraft, with 221 passengers on board, was heading for Arrecife, Lanzarote, when the birds hit the right hand engine, causing a flameout and repeated puffs of black smoke. The pilot declared an emergency and dumped excess fuel before landing at 1030.
Source: Flightglobal
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I am rather impressed at the way the flight crew handled this emergency, particularly the landing.
Aside from the audio of the radio traffic, it appeared no differant than most any other landing, which was especially difficult considering the aircraft did not have “synchronous thrust.”
As our friends across the pond would say, I take my hat off to the flight crew. Excellent job!
Caeden O
Liverpool